day three, WDW

We planned a 'catch up' day or two, just in case we couldn't get everything done in a park the day before, we could go back and get it done. Well, crowds were light (they didn't feeeeel light, but they were.. it was a mixed bag), so we had a day we hadn't planned out and didn't know what to do with. We had not planned on going to Animal Kingdom, but we decided to do that, since we had the free time and all. Well..

.. we sort of liked it. And sort of didn't. It FELT crowded because all the walkways are narrow and overgrown with plants.. thus creating an exotic vibe, but also making a person feel claustrophobic and pressed in and stressed out. That's just my/our take on it. We rode a thing that I can't remember the name of that was basically a jungle safari kinda thing in a huge jeep. It was kinda neat. There were live animals walking around very close by. It was hard to snap pics because of the vehicle rocking as we rode on rutted out pathways they called 'roads'. haha. Just adding to the ambiance of 'safari' I guess. Whatever. There were also some animatronic animals added in that helped create a little back story about poachers. Could have done without that part. The real animals were the stars of the show.

There were these even skinnier pathways that led us down to areas that were like zoo exhibits with animals etc. We enjoyed that because it felt like we were off the beaten path and the crowds were lighter. I took several pictures of the signature tree inside the park called 'The Tree of Life'. I wasn't really crazy about the name of the tree. But anyhoo... we ate lunch and left. We had had enough of the crowdedynes. LOL

We rode the monorail around.. just for fun. Enjoyed the things we could see from it. We went back to Epcot and rode Test Track AGAIN. Yay! Then we went to dinner. Dinner was at our resort, as we were hoping for an early night and thought we'd skip out of the parks and enjoy a NICE meal outside the park. Well... this meal was a big disappointment. Everything on the menu sounded wonderful, but it did not deliver. My dinner had the potential of being great, but not a single item on my plate had an ounce of flavor. boring. And every dessert had milk, so that was a no go too. It was pretty sad.

The building the restaurant was in housed many things. It had a counter service place in it. That's Disney speak for fast food. And then the place we ate dinner in... table service... Disney speak for slow food. And also a gift shop. So we shopped. They had much cuter tshirts there than I'd seen inside the park. And I was bummed. So I asked the man working there if we could exchange our shirts even though we had purchased them inside the park. And he said 'sure!'. So we walked back to our room and grabbed the shirts I'd bought for Boo and I and went back and exchanged them. I was so glad they let us do that. Boo and I ended up with really cute shirts. Now it just needs to get warm enough to wear them! LOL

our 'hotel'

Our 'hotel' left a little bit to be desired. At least it did right after we made the reservation. I was kinda bummed when I figured out it wasn't a hotel at all. But a fayn-cee-fied MOtel. But it turned out ok. And yes, it looked a little better than the pic from Jungle Cruise directly below.


We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and actually, the view and the aesthetics were kinda pretty. We enjoyed the views right outside our door. See... isn't it pretty?!



Inside the room, it was the standard cookie cutter hotel room. It had a Nemo wall border and bedspread. Cute. But it kinda felt like they'd tried to go 'tropical' in a time past, and then added the Nemo stuff. There were different shades of green in some places and that kinda bothered me. But it wasn't 'bad' at all. It had the standard motel issue 'tiny bathroom' that you've gotta step out of to change your mind, much less your clothes! Thankfully there was a curtain that could be drawn to enclose the sink area, so there was a little room to spread out and change without being in full view of everyone in the room. So that was a nice little extra. They also seemed to take into account that guests would indeed be carrying luggage and need a place to put it down upon entering. You may wonder why I say that, since it sounds kinda like a 'duh'. Well, lemme tell ya...

We usually stay at Hampton Inns. It's nice for our needs as a family and it usually works out for us. But in 2007, we went to Colorado for vacation and stayed at Hampton Inns along the way and in Colorado Springs. Weeell... I've never walked into a hotel room and just stood there holding my luggage looking around and being shocked and surprised that there wasn't a single place to put it down and get it out of the way.. until our most recent Hampton Inn stays. And they've changed the beds in those too and they're very bouncy and not very supportive. So...

...the fact that they had places for me to put my stuff down was a plus, right off the bat. And the bed was supportive and non-bouncy so I wasn't sore when I woke up in the morning. The room we were able to get had two double sized beds in it. I was supposed to sleep with Boo since the hubster is very tall and has to kinda curl up to fit in a double. So that was the plan. Until I slept with her that first night and got elbowed, knee'ed and slapped around all night long. We called for a roll away bed for the rest of the nights. I was able to get a little better sleep after that..except for the funny noises the sheets made. We've never had this one before..every time we moved or rolled over, the sheets made loud crumpledy racket. Woke me up every time any of us.. including myself moved. And the real 'kicker'...there was a brochure in the room that showed how we could order these wonderful linens for OUR HOME! Talk about 'LOL'. We did 'laugh out loud'. We thought we could skip out of the rackety, weird feeling sheets. Thankfully, we weren't there for the sheets! : )

day two, part two

So I left you all with us eating lunch on day two. We had a monster huge 'fancy' deli sandwich in the land pavilion. Some of the produce sold in meals in that building is grown on the property we saw during our 'The Land' tour. I thought that was kinda cool.

After lunch, we went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was bad. Just thinking of a way to use 3D...and scare kids half to death with scary things shooting out at their faces. Way ta go Disney! And then we rode Test Track again. Yay! And then an oldie but a goodie, Spaceship Earth. That's the ride inside the big Epcot 'ball'. It surprised me that these rides that could be called 'boring' were some of Boo's favorite since they were interesting and there were things to look at and notice. And then on the way back down after the ride, there was a small touch screen and by answering a few questions, they made up a little mock up community based on your likes and put your/our heads on the tops of the people. So we got a good laugh at the pic they took of us on the ride and watched our little person doing things on the screen. Good for a silly laugh. We rode this again at some point later in the day.. it was an entertaining way to get off our feet!

Then we toured the world showcase... that's what it's called, isn't it?! I forget. We just called it 'the countries'. We saw a little street show of a couple of 'french bakery fellows' and they did an acrobatic thing with balancing chairs and standing on top. Pretty incredible and a little dangerous with no wires etc. But it was comical and fun to watch. The one fellow on the ground made all his wishes known by blowing a whistle.. gently..loudly..with feeling etc. Interesting all he could invoke with just gesturing and a whistle. We walked around and browsed and took plenty of pics of the buildings etc. At one point we rode a boat around in the waters in the middle of the showcase area.. just for fun. It was nice to see things from the water.

We watched part of the America video thing in the USA area. It was kinda boring and we were hungry. So we bugged out and went to dinner. We had a reservation at a hibachi place in the Asian section. We were seated right away. The meal was wonderful. Probably the best meal we had while we were there. And of course, the table entertainment was fun too. Our cooker guy chef was interesting and since he talks to people everyday, he could talk to any guest about wherever they happened to live. He was an interesting person. This meal was late.

Some side notes... one thing we were all looking forward to was the Hall of Presidents. It's closed... until JULY of 2009! Is that crazy, or what?! We were bummed as it's one of those things people go to Disney wanting to see. And we didn't get to. : ( Another thing, we purchased tshirts in the world area. We thought they were cute and we'd been seeing a lot of the same stuff, so we just went on and bought one for Boo and I that day.

Well, by the time our late hibachi dinner was over, so were the fireworks! I was totally bummed. I knew we would be cutting it very close... but it's a very short show and it was over by the time we stepped out after dinner. It was a disappointment at the time, and as the week wore on, I became more upset that we missed it.. just to eat. (oh well, there's a 'better' show coming at Disney Hollywood Studios, right?!)

Disney day two

Day two had us lined up in front of Epcot waiting to get in. They let folks through the turnstiles to walk up to a roped off line further inside the park. When the people, including the characters, come out, they take down the ropes and everyone is off like a shot. Although this sounds exciting, it bugged me. Everyone was pushing and crowding and in a big mass. When going through the turnstiles, it naturally spaces people out, so there is no huge mass of people pressing in at any given moment. It was craziness. But it was still fun! We got a close up of Minnie Mouse. Donald walked by but my camera hesitated, so all I got was his little hat. Oh well!
I made a list of everything we did on the second day and it blew my mind. We hustled and got a lot done! I have to also recommend the Unofficial Disney travel guide. It was excellent and we got many of our time saving tips from reading the book and following it's strategies.

First we stopped at Soarin' and got ourselves a Fast Pass. This is where you wait in a line to meet up with a kiosk and put in your ticket card and it spits out a paper card with a later time on it and you go do something else and come back during the specified time and your place is 'saved' in line and you can pretty much just hop right on the ride.. or have a much shorter wait than the 'regular line'. I have to say it's a sweet little innovation.. and isn't that what Epcot is all about?! Getting our 'FP' for Soarin' did not go smoothly though. The machine broke down with the lady in front of us so the employee 'cast member' just handed her FP's out of her pocket. We were right behind her and she told us we had to start over in another long line. GRRRR. There are a few things at Disney that are pretty uncool in the way they handle them.. that is one example! But we finally scored our tickets and bugged out to....

TEST TRACK! With no wait, I might add. Thanks to the wonderful research done by the book writers, we walked right on the ride. And it was our favorite, hands down.

We also rode a little Nemo ride.. think little kid thing. And then another animated interactive thing called Turtle Talk with Crush and yes it was very funny.. even for the grown up set! And then we went back to ride Soarin' with a shortened wait. (this was our longest FP line. This ride is insane popular) In the same building is a little boat ride called The Land... it was more informational than anything, but it was a nice place to rest the feet, which at this point were SCREAMING. And then we had lunch.

One note here about Epcot. It's original intent by Walt Disney himself seems to be lost here. Remember how it stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow? I had to remember that myself to really 'understand' the purpose of some of the rides..like The Land. Walt's vision is fading for that park and it's sad they aren't keeping his vision for it more alive or at the front of people's thoughts.

I think I will split day two into two posts, as there is a lot more info to go. And I don't want to bore you to tears! Oops.. too late.. already did! LOL

The sights! The sounds! The smells??

Our trip to Disney was, of course wonderful! There was so much to see and do. It truly kept the senses busy. But one thing that I didn't expect was just how complete the sensory experience was going to be.

Some things were expected like the smell of popcorn..or more unpleasantly, the stench smell of cigarette smoke every time we walked toward an outdoor 'smoking area'. But there were some smells that took us by surprise. One of them was when we rode the ride Soarin' at Epcot. It makes the rider feel as though they are flying... or soarin'.. get it, get it?!... above several different environments. I could feel the wind on my face, which was pretty neat.. but then something unexpected happened. I could smell things. Like evergreens and oranges and oceans and whatever else we were flying above at that time. It really completed the experience.

But then there were some even more unexpected smells. We stayed at resort on property called Caribbean Beach Resort. When we went into the gift shop area for our resort, it smelled like.. you guessed it.. the tropics and a little bit like coconut. And while waiting in line for several rides, we'd smell cinnamon rolls, of all things! And there weren't any nearby, so that smell had to be 'piped in'. It was strange, and yet it played it's part in enveloping us in 'the experience'.

In case you're wondering when is she gonna quit talking about that trip? Well.. I don't know. It's nice to document things here since this is a diary of sorts. And.... it's more interesting than saying 'bah humbug' for a while longer. Although, I have to say, this trip has lightened my mood and I'm not feeling as down as I usually do during this month, so that's a plus right now! : )

the people

One of the interesting things we saw that wasn't on any ride or attraction was the people. I'm talking people watching. This can be done on quite a grand scale at Disney! I lost count of how many languages I overheard. And the different cultures and their clothing choices. Oh my! The young Asian ladies have quite a thing going.. that's all I'm gonna say! LOL One day we decided to ride the monorail around the park. How can you go to Disney and NOT ride the monorail? Anyway... a family got on.. obviously not um from around here since their shirts had foreign words on them and they either had a thick accent or didn't speak English at all.. couldn't tell. But their little group was interesting. A set of parents, two children and their opposite sex 'friends'. Nice. One girl looked like she'd been attacked on the neck by a vacuum cleaner (a-hem) and another 'set' sitting next to me needed to seriously get a room. I was glad when they got off! LOL

But of course, the kids were the most interesting. After all.. aren't they the ones that place is all about?! We had opportunity to see little kids faces light up when they saw something wonderful. But there were also the tired, gripey kids that had been dragged around all day that were just done. with. it. (on a side note.. one of our little sayings toward the end of our stay was 'this is no place for little kids!' LOL) And there were the enthusiastic kids dragging their parents around even after a long day at the park. And there were lots of crying kids too. But the ones that stick out to me were the ones that made me smile or laugh or brought up another memory. Like the little kid at the fireworks over the castle the first night... every time there was a lull in the action, he was ask rather loudly "is it over?". Cracked us up! We laughed our heads off every time and in turn, his parents laughed with us. They were funny little moments. And so much like our little Bub. He would have asked the same thing at that age...at every single lull..just like that little boy did!

And then there was the family we met at the bus stop one morning. Every time a bus came and went and he couldn't get on, he cried. Not angry.. just sad. It cracked us up! At one point, I had to turn away and blink back tears. He reminded me a little bit of Bub too with his cute little pug nose and funny ways. And then of course, there were the wish families. We spotted three that we know of... they all had Make-a-Wish tshirts on. And of course, that has a tender spot in my heart too. Those families have been through so much.

And there was the little boy walking in front of us on a pathway at our resort. The sidewalks were made of bricks. Bricks are small. So there are lots of cracks. hint hint! I couldn't figure out why he was walking funny until his dad grabbed him by the arm and said "sorry buddy, but there are just too many cracks. You're gonna have to step on them!". LOL

People.. and kids are something else!

our first day

The first day of our trip was crazy yet so memorable. We had to get up at 5 something to be ready to go by 6 something and be at the airport by 7. Our plane left at 9am. Everything went very well with catching the shuttle and getting to the airport and finally arriving at the Orlando airport and getting on the Magical Express to Disney. Everything went flawlessly...our luggage even arrived at our room the way it was supposed to!

Anyway.. by 2 something we were checked into our room and we had ditched our carry-ons and applied sunblock and gathered all the necessary items for a half day in the park and headed out to the Magic Kingdom. By 3pm we were standing in our first line... to ride The Haunted Mansion, which we loved. We did everything on our list that day.. including Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, The Laugh Floor (interactive animated show featuring the characters from Monsters Inc), The Carousel of Progress (an old time attraction), It's a Small World (of course!), and a couple of other things. We ate dinner at a little place called The Plaza and it was directly in front of The Castle. It was dark outside by this time and Boo watched the castle through the window as she ate her dinner. It was lit up and changed colors throughout our meal. Every time she gushed about the colors, we turned and looked and commented appropriately. It really was pretty!

Not long after that, it was time for the evening fireworks to begin. We walked right up to the very last spot on the sidewalk and snuggled close together (just like the other zillion people in attendance) to watch the show. The music of course, was delightful and sweet. It was a magical time. I wrapped my arms around my little girl and held her close as we watched and oooh'ed and aaaaah'ed at the beautiful show. Before long, I found myself in tears. I can't tell you why.. other than life is so stressful and so much of the simplicity that used to be our lives, is gone forever. This just took me to a place I needed to go..even if just for a little bit. Every time I think about that, I begin to cry again. I feel so silly even saying that... but it did feel like a weight had been temporarily lifted and it was just wonderful. It was so nice just to be swept up in it all for a little bit. It set the stage for a great trip!